Ukraine-based Serpstat Perseveres Amid the War

Editor’s note: Serpstat is an SEO provider in Ukraine. An employee of the company submitted the article below at our request.

Serpstat is a Ukraine-based search engine optimization platform. Founded in 2013 as a keyword research tool, our company has grown to roughly 100 employees throughout Ukraine, serving 400,000 customers worldwide.

Covid-19 forced us to operate remotely. We learned how to work, communicate, and build processes virtually to serve ecommerce businesses.

Serpstat launched in 2013. It now has 100 employees throughout Ukraine and 400,000 customers worldwide.

Our War Efforts

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed our lives and company. Many Ukrainians, including some colleagues, continue working, despite the air alarms. Some team members joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while others help coordinate volunteers or assist in cyber efforts to share the truth worldwide about the war.

For now, Serpstat is focused on:

• Financial support of the Armed Forces,
• Volunteer initiatives,
• Sharing war-related information in the digital space,
• Maintaining the company’s viability,
• Supporting Ukraine’s economy.

As it is vital to communicate an accurate picture of the war, our English blog editor, Taras Prystatskyy, launched a volunteer initiative of journalists and joined the information resistance.

Prystatskyy writes, “Ukrainian Volunteer Journalist Initiative (UVJI) cooperates with Western journalists in the information field. Volunteers accumulate, verify and translate all the news for Western media so that the world can see the real situation in Ukraine. We sleep for 4-5 hours per day, but everyone is motivated. I know volunteers who work in Kharkiv from bomb shelters.”

Safety and Stability

Our priority is to ensure the safety of employees. In the first days of the war, we helped them evacuate from Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other cities under fire.

Now, we monitor our employees’ conditions and are ready to help with relocation if needed. We constantly update our internal databases of volunteer centers abroad and rental housing in Ukraine and other countries. We also moderate local chats for our employees who had to move.

We try to ensure financial stability for our employees. This includes paying salaries in advance where necessary.

We have simplified some workflows for the new environment. We hold daily employee support meetings via Zoom with a certified psychologist. Participants have the opportunity to share their experiences and receive expert advice. Attendance is optional.

We also hold weekly meetings with top managers of Netpeak Group, our parent company. Managers share news about their businesses’ activities and information received from authorities.

Leaving Russia

The war forced us to make quick decisions. One critical decision was the boycott of our Russian users. As a Ukrainian company, we couldn’t continue to support clients in a country whose missiles destroy our cities and kill civilians. Thus, Serpstat became one of the first Ukrainian SaaS firms to block user accounts from Russia, despite the economic consequences to us.

Serpstat also lost considerable income from Ukrainian clients, but some have started working again. Many Ukrainian businesses are struggling.

Our CEO, Ekaterina Kabakova, stated, “The immediate plans are to launch a support program for clients from Ukraine to help keep their businesses afloat.”

Looking Ahead

Although many of our employees had to leave their homes for safer places, we strive to keep our services stable for customers. We continue updating and developing new tools and features.

A recent update is “Keyword trends,” which collects and displays the most popular search engine queries. We used this tool to research the change in global keyword activity following the Russian invasion.

Despite the hardships, Serpstat is looking ahead. CEO Kabakova explains, “In the first month, we lost about 50-60% of profits, making it difficult to predict future results. We know how important it is to go through this difficult period for employees and their families, for the country’s economy, to contribute to victory and rebuild the country afterward.”

Our new support page explains how you can help Serpstat and Ukraine.